Election History Bites | Perverse results

The 1981 election result has earned the ignoble label of being a ‘perverse result’ because the party that obtained an absolute majority of votes had fewer parliamentary seats. It was thus denied the chance to be in government.

Indeed, the Nationalist Party obtained 50.9% against the Malta Labour Party’s 49.1% with the gap standing at 4,142 votes. Nonetheless, the PN elected 31 MPs against the MLP’s 34, a result that was down to the changes in electoral district boundaries, which favoured the party in government.

According to the Constitution, the MLP had the right to form a government since it had a majority of seats in parliament.

The outcome of the 1981 election led to a boycott of parliament by PN MPs in the two years. Political instability and violence ensued, culminating in the murder of PN activist Raymond Caruana in December 1986.

Nonetheless, the 1981 result was a watershed moment that eventually led to a constitutional amendment in 1987 that ensured the party that obtains an absolute majority of votes would govern. The amendment allowed extra seats to be added to the tally of the party with an absolute majority of votes to give it a one-seat majority, if it fell short after all votes are counted.

Irrespective of the ‘perverse’ label, the 1981 election was not the only one where the outcome resulted in a discrepancy between votes won and seats gained. Indeed, the manner by which the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system works makes such an outcome very possible since there is no automatic nationwide proportionality between votes and seats.

In 1927, the PN obtained 41.6% of votes to finish ahead of the Constitutional Party, which secured 41.5%. Nonetheless, the PN had 13 seats against the CP’s 15 seats. This allowed the CP to get a first go at forming the government, which it did in agreement with the MLP that had three seats.

However, the 1981 election stands out because this was the first time that a political party with an absolute majority of votes, as opposed to a relative majority, won a minority of seats. A similar situation occurred in 1987, 1996 and 2008 but by then the STV system was tweaked to allow the addition of extra seats to ensure the party with most votes could form a government.

In 1987, the constitutional arrangement only applied if the winning party had an absolute majority but by 1996 this was also extended to a situation where the winning party had a relative majority in the context of only two parties electing MPs.

In both the 1987 and 1996 amendments, the winning party was only guaranteed a one-seat majority. This changed in 2007 when another constitutional change was introduced to ensure strict proportionality between first-count votes obtained nationwide and seats in parliament. Nonetheless, the mechanism only works in specific cases. This proportionality mechanism will be discussed in the next instalment.

Election History Bites powered by Agenda Bookshop is a series of election-inspired stories that will be published from Monday to Friday every morning throughout the election campaign